Technology and History Part 2

Having recently re-read an article on the L.A. Fire Department's use of Web 2.0, I found myself looking at applications for past events. If we tell a simple story using the context of the past, then maybe we can better design solutions for the present.

Close your eyes and step into H.G. Well's time machine with me. We are bound for 1862. We find ourselves on the banks of Antietam Creek on the 17th of September. The Armies of Blue and Gray surround us and America's Bloodiest Day is about to begin. We bring with us the social networking and webification technology of the 21st Century. Our mission: To provide dynamic, web-based updates on the historic 1862 battle for an American History Class in 2008.

We start by roaming the battlefield with our digital camera. We capture images of dirty soldiers, inspiring leaders, troop movements, rifle and artillery fire, startled civilians, death, and destruction. We post these images using Flickr on our laptop with a wireless internet connection through time. We use Real Simple Syndication (RSS) Feeds to update our American Civil War Blog. The Blog is easily accessed via the History Class's Web Site. We also use Google’s web-based Blogger software with FeedBurner, an RSS feed to deliver real-time imagery via Podcasts to History Classes across the world. The images provide a dynamic view of the battle's progress and its impacts on the land and the men involved.

At the same time, our roaming correspondents use Twitter to provide short burst updates on the battle. We embed our correspondents with Union and Confederate Units. The Twitter updates track progress as units move, engage, and fall back in the mighty struggle for the Cornfield and the West Woods. We utilize Twitter's Short Message Service (SMS) to provide updates to subscribers with cell phones. We provide Instant Messaging (IM) updates via the web. We include links using tiny URLs in the Twitter updates for access to Flickr images, battle maps, troop orders of battle, and casualty reports. In an instant, thousands can track the battles' progress and focus on units or people of interest. Our History Class and other subscribers can visualize themselves on the battlefield at each critical point in time. We can watch the battle unfold, in real-time, from either side's perspective.

As the battle progresses, and chaos overtakes the smoldering landscape turned red, we switch to Jott and use our cell phone to convert voice messages to text and deliver the messages to our subscribers using RSS feeds. The feeds are accessed via the History Class Web Site and are published to external web sites.

We quickly develop mapping mashups using Google Earth and Google Map to display troop movements, battle lines, headquarters locations, hospitals, roads, bridges, and other lines of communication. We embed information about each location in the mashup and develop Java applications to replay the battle for class discussion and after-action analysis.

As the sun sets on the rolling fields of Washington County, Maryland, we use BlogTalkRadio to facilitate a class discussion on the battle, its role in the American Civil War, and its outcome.

We make the return trip to 21st Century America, hoping to have proven the utility of today's web for those non-believers amongst us. Somewhere in the sands of time, we could have used Web Alerts, Online Groups and Distribution Lists, Translation Services, and possibly even MySpace or Facebook. Could you imagine a Robert E. Lee MySpace page?